HERNDON, Va., Dec. 12, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has been selected to lead one of three teams that have been awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract to provide scientific, engineering, logistic, administrative, acquisition and ancillary support to the Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC).

The contract has a transition and base year value of $81 million for Northrop Grumman's Information Technology sector, and the contract's ceiling is $340 million over the eight-year life of the program. The award was made to Logicon, the former name of Northrop Grumman's information technology sector.

"The JITC contract is a significant strategic win for Northrop Grumman," said Barry Rhine, president, Defense Mission Systems, Northrop Grumman Information Technology. "Together with our interoperability work with the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Army and Air Force, Northrop Grumman has established itself as a leader in interoperability testing, evaluation and certification of military systems."

The JITC is a subordinate command of the Defense Information Systems Agency and is responsible for certifying that all Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I) systems are interoperable. JITC's principal goal is to improve joint interoperability through a quality, cost-effective testing program administered throughout the life cycle of a system.

Through the JITC contract, Northrop Grumman will develop and coordinate test and evaluation plans; engineer, install and operate test equipment; and assess and evaluate through the life cycle National Security Systems/Information Technology Systems (NSS/ITS) program acquisitions.

The company will also perform engineering and test analysis of Department of Defense (DoD) IT interoperability standards; perform scheduling and management of JITC facilities; and provide a wide range of nontechnical logistics, administrative, security and miscellaneous support services to the JITC and its DoD clients.